On the road again…

Mom quizzed me all morning before I left to help me figure out what I left behind. After the quizzing it was apparent that I had remembered everything… or had I?

Lauren was ready to go when I arrived at her swanky apartment in Charlottesville. I quizzed her also and she grabbed all her last minute items.

We decided to start our adventure by meandering slowly down the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have never been on the parkway that I can remember and I really enjoyed it. Everything was brilliant green and vibrant, the road was pleasant and curvy, and no one else was on the parkway. The lack of traffic was so apparent that we felt the need to announce to each other when we finally saw a car. Mom sent me on a t-shirt hunt for a shirt with a weird dangerous curve sign on it – we only saw one such sign while driving, but apparently there are more the further along the parkway you travel. Lauren and I stopped a few places, but they didn’t have the shirt, and nor had they seen it.

After crossing the James – yes the James River that also travels through Richmond on its way to the Chesapeake Bay – we decided we had better get on 81 if we ever wanted to make it to Tennessee. We immediately decided that we didn’t really care for 81 with its hay meadows and big rigs. We missed the slow travel of the Blue Ridge Parkway already.

81 was pretty uneventful and boring other than being able to travel thirty miles an hour faster. At the gas station we decided to see if the DQ would take my Virginia coupon, they wouldn’t. It was here at the gas station that I discovered what I forgot. My cash. I had gone to the atm to get cash for the trip because surely some of those spots in the country wouldn’t take credit cards. I switched wallets while packing and left my cash in the other wallet. Oops.

We were surrounded by dark stormy clouds for a while and joked that we were in the ‘eye’ of the storm. Eventually it did start to pour. We stopped at the Tennessee rest stop to collect some road propaganda and take our photo with the ’welcome to Tennessee’ sign and Dolly Parton. Dolly is a difficult woman to photograph because her hair is so tall.

We stopped soon at a National Parks Welcome Center to get more info about the Smokies and how we were entering. As we drove through Sevierville and pigeon forge it was amazing to count the number of welcome centers, dinner theaters, and tourist traps. There were seriously at least six different dinner shows with mostly different themes.

We came in a side entrance of the Smokies up a very steeply graded, windy, narrow lane. We chose this route because on the map it was a red squiggly worm – a fun road. It was beautiful – also vibrant green and lush and maybe even more appealing because it was still raining off and on. We stopped next to the stream to eat excellent barbeque and look around. We were still a ways away from our campground and it was still raining on and off so we decided to get a move on. We timed the setting up of the tent perfectly. Minutes after the rain flap was secured and the tent staked it started to pour.

Because it was still kind of early, we decided to check out the Cades Cove driving loop. It was much longer than I anticipated. The driving loop is a road around a meadow ringed by mountains. As Lauren pointed out, it looks like home – especially the Charlottesville area. There were some historical points of interest, but mostly people were stopping to gawk at deer and turkeys and take photos. Because the route is one lane and one way, you are at the mercy of the folks in front of you despite all the signs telling people not to stop on the road and to please use the pullouts. “Look at the deer!” Lauren and I made fun of them.

Lauren must have coffee (for the caffeine) in the morning whereas I merely enjoy it. There is a tiny snack bar at our camp site that does sell coffee, but they only take cash. While driving the Cades Cove Loop, I remembered my emergency twenty kept in the ashtray! Woot. Upon returning to camp we cleaned up, used the emergency twenty for two evening cups of coffee and a coke for Lauren in the morning. The coffee shop does not open until 9 am and we are camping – we know we are going to be up and hiking well before then. Off to the tent for reading and writing and planning and hiding from the rain while listening to the WT around us. We’ve already decided the bears are not going to bother us – there are more interesting folk around.